III. De innocentia vitae et sanctae conversationis ipsius

III. De innocentia vitae et sanctae conversationis ipsius

Indeed, it can be said of him, and truly, what we have already mentioned about Josiah. When he was still a boy, he began to seek the Lord and did what was right and pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Before him, there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul, and strength; nor did any arise after him like him. And he walked in the ways of David, his father. He did not turn to the right or to the left. He had a father who was most Christian and most holy, namely King Louis, who, filled with zeal for the faith, took up the cross by the authority of the Church against the heretics who were then greatly opposing the Roman Church and the Christian faith in the regions of the Albigensians, and he valiantly undertook a pilgrimage and powerfully overcame most of those proud enemies, and when he returned from that pilgrimage, he happily passed on to the Lord. As a devoted successor and vigorous imitator of such a pious father, Louis, the one we are speaking of, did not deviate from the holy footsteps of his father, neither to the right, so as to be vainly exalted in prosperity, nor to the left, so as to be broken by some adversity. For he was one who always remained humble in prosperity and secure in adversity, as we have often experienced regarding both fortunes, with the Lord granting it.